How do you survive?
by Dixon-Girl1996
Summary: Cheyenne Grimes is 22 years old when the apocalypse starts. Not only does she have to survive the walkers, but also the people around her. With her feisty attitude she is not one to make friends easily. She has to learn how to stand up for herself, without getting into bigger trouble. The youngest Dixon brother may be the friend she needs in these times
1. Introduction

How do you survive? [The walking dead/Daryl Dixon]

In this story we follow the group as they try to survive during an apocalypse. This story will follow the main time line of the AMC The Walking Dead TV series, but it will be different in many ways, because in this chapter there is another character involved. Cheyenne Grimes is the daughter of Rick Grimes and Lori Grimes, big sister of Carl Grimes.

Cheyenne is 20 years old when the apocalypse starts and joins her mother, brother and Shane when the flee from the undead. In this story most will be in her POV.

I hope you enjoy this story, if say, I love to hear it from you. I also would like to hear it if you don't like it, and give me tips. I rated this story M because of the mature content. There will be abuse and rape in this story, so if you don't like that, don't read. There will also be lemons further in the story between Cheyenne and Daryl.


	2. Life right now

How do you survive? Chapter 1: Life right now

 **Warning, there is mention of abuse and inappropriate actions in this chapter**

We have been at the camp for 3 weeks now. And I already want to leave. Carl enjoys his time with Sofia, the became friends as soon as the saw each other in that traffic jam. Mom had been enjoying herself with Shane, she was over dad so quickly it's scary. And Shane is the same creep he has always been. He had been giving the same weird look the last weeks, as he gave me every time he came to our house. The same look he always gave my mom.

But not only is Shane irritating me to my bones, but everyone here is treating me as a child. I'm a good shot, my dad made sure of that. He taught me how to handle a gun when I was 12 years old and I took lessons in archery from around the same age. As soon as this thing started I got Carl and my bow, I found a small revolver in dad's nightstand, and like that we left the house with mom and Shane.

I'm sitting on the RV, it was actually Andrea's turn to have watch, but I convinced her to let me take over. Dale and Shane are in charge of the camp right now, and both of them refuse to let me stand watch, or help going on supply runs. The only one accepting me seems to be Glenn, and sometimes Daryl. But that's just because I don't nag if he acts gross, or whine when he shoots a squirrel. And he seems to be okay with me going on small hunts with him, unfortunately my mom isn't.

''Cheyenne, what are you doing up there?''

"I'm standing watch, are you blind Shane?"

He looks around before climbing up the ladder. He stands next to me, hovering over me. His left hand wraps around my upper arm and he pulls me on my feet.

"Get the fuck of the RV and get Andrea to do her own shifts."

He pushes me in front of him, towards the ladder. I climb down, not wanting to anger him further. The last time I did that didn't end very well for me, I still feel his harsh hands on me when I think back to the night that only happened last week.

 _We had dinner and was walking back to my tent. I hear my name being shouted from behind me. I turn around before entering my tent and I see Shane walking towards me. He seems agitated, although I don't know why._

" _Can you clean up your mess for one fricking time?'' He asks, standing a bit too close to me now._

" _What do you mean?" I cleaned up my plate from my dinner, I put in the bucket for the one with dishes duty this evening, I even took Carls plate with me._

" _Your spot is a mess, if you keep throwing food on the floor like that, it will attract walkers."_

 _His words seem kind of slurred. He probably has been drinking some of Merle's self-brewed beer or something._

" _It can't be that bad, don't be a pussy. Walkers aren't even attracted to human food, otherwise this place would have been overrun long time ago. Now leave me alone."_

 _I try to turn away from him but he grabs my arm and drags me with him a few feet further. We have reached the back of the RV when I finally succeed in pulling back my arm from his grip._

" _What the fuck are you doing?"_

 _He grabs back my arm and pushes me against the RV. His right hand across my chest, restraining me from getting away. His arm kind of pushes against my throat, causing me to gasp for air. I have never seen him like this. Shane was never the aggressive person. The look in his eyes is even scarier, it's not madness, it's more like hunger._

 _His left arm roams the right side of my body and I shiver._

" _You have a beautiful body, just like your mother…" His hand gets under my shirt and I wiggle to get free from his hold, but he only pushed me harder against the RV._

 _I push against me with my hands, but it's no use. His hands hold mine within seconds, putting them above my head. I feel tears behind my eyes. I can't cry, I can't show him weakness._

" _You shouldn't fight so much, although it kind of turns me on when you do. I've always wanted to see that body of you without those stupid clothes on. But your dad would have killed before I could have the chance to. Good thing he not here now._

 _He puts his head in the crook of my neck and starts kissing. Except crying, I want to puke now too. His right hand is holding my hands above my head, his body pushing against mine to keep me from running away. His left hand roams my torso and towards my breasts. I can feel him pushing his groin against my body and I whimper._

" _Shane? Where are you?" I hear my mom shout._

" _Don't say a word. You are going to stay here and keep that pretty mouth of yours shut."_

 _With that he let go of my hands and turned away from me._

I shiver when I think back to that night, and what would have happened if my mom wouldn't have called for him. Since them I have been scared shitless for him. That's the only reason I bite my lip twice before talking back to him, and I check his mood every two minutes to see if I can move around freely or I should stay among other people.

This is the main reason I hate being at this camp. But it is the only way to survive, I know I wouldn't make one mile if I were on my own. So I stay, but not because it's so lovely around here. This is my life right now, and I have to deal with it.


	3. Hunting

**How do you survive- Chapter 2: Hunting**

It's been two weeks since I left the camp for the last time. I'm going crazy in here. The only activity I have been doing is cleaning squirrels with Daryl. More people have arrived in the camp. A family of four, the two children haven't said anything since they've arrived. But they seem nice. The father helps around the camp a lot, and the mother is a very good care-taker, she watches over the children in the camp when their own parents can't. She is mostly joined by Carol.

I haven't seen my mom and Shane for the last three hours or so. Maybe this is my chance to sneak out, when they're out doing what I think they're doing, it could be another three hours before they'll return.

And there is my escape. Daryl just walked by and according to his crossbow on his back, he is going hunting.

"Daryl, wait up!'' I yell at him before taking my bow and running towards him.

He stands still at the edge of the woods. His hand holds his crossbow in right hand as he leans against one of the threes with his left side.

"You finally allowed to go hunting princess?"

His nickname for me still bugs me but I put up with it. He used to call me 'sunshine' because in the beginning I was way too optimistic, but he stopped doing that because my optimism turned down a lot and I turned into the grumpy girl no one wanted to be around.

I shrug as an answer and walk into the woods. Is almost can't hear the silent footstep following me, but I know they are there. Daryl would never let me go into the woods alone. We both stay silent as we walk through the woods. The trees get closer to each other and it gets harder to just walk.

Out of nowhere I feel the soft tap on my shoulder. I freeze and look around. Daryl stands still behind me and points to my right. In the distance I can see the silhouette of a man. He limps, dragging his right foot along with him. It doesn't take long before I can see more details of the man, well, walker. He has long dirty hair and he misses his left ear. Daryl and I wait till he gets a bit closer. One of us could hit him from where we stand, but it would mean that we have to walk a great distance to retrieve the valuable arrows.

"Go ahead princess, if… you can still do it." He mocks me, and stands back to lean against a tree.

I grab an arrow and aim for the walkers eyes. Just before I want to shoot, the walker falls down. I wait until he stands up again. My arrow leaves the bow and lands right between his eyes. He falls down ones again and this time he doesn't get back up.

"Shit!" Daryl curses and loads his crossbow. Behind the walker I shot down appear a lot more. "Let's get out of here, to many to take down."

He grabs my arm and drags me to the side. We run as good as we can. My orientation isn't very good, but I know we aren't running back to the camp. Which is pretty obvious, we wouldn't want to lead all those walkers back to the camp. We run for a while, our route blocked by walkers multiple times, causing us to change our patch a lot of times.

"I think we lost them." I pant as I stop running. I look behind me before leaning against a three, hands on my knees. Guess I have to train more. But Daryl also seems a bit out of breath.

"Yeah, not used to running are ya princess?"

I just shake my head and get back up. Adjusting my bow so it lays a bit more comfortable on my back.

"So… where are we?" I look around me. We're standing in an open field, surrounded by old trees and dense bushes. I can't see past the open field, everything is pretty packed around us.

I look at Daryl, small beads of sweat are dripping down his forehead to the ground. His eyes scan out surroundings. Just now I notice how he stands, like a lion ready to attack, searching for his pray among the bushes and trees.

"I don't know, let's just keep walking."

We decided to go to the south, we remember running of the north so that would bring us back to the camp, or at least to the highway. We should be able to find out way back to the camp from there. But it's getting dark soon and we won't be able to find our way back through the dark. To make it even better, it starts raining.

We're soaked and cold before we find an old shed. We only have to kill two walkers inside. And to our luck there are rabbits running all around this place. Daryl manages to shoot one from inside the shed.

"Fuck, we should have been back hours ago. My mom Is going to kill me.'' I sit down on some hay, my back against a wooden pole. Suddenly I feel the tiredness flooding over me and I close my eyes for just a second.

At least I thought so, but when I open my eyes again there is a lot more light in the shed. Small rays of sunlight shine through the cracks in the walls. Daryl is slumped against an old stall door, his hand on his bow. He seems peaceful when he sleeps, less hard, less angry.

"Daryl, hey!" I throw a small piece of wood against his left leg.

"What?!'' He jumps up, crossbow ready and arrow pointed at me.

"Relax, it's just me. We fell asleep, it's already morning. We have to get back!''

"You fell asleep, I just thought I might get some sleep when were stuck here anyway."

I roll my eyes at him before I stand up. We grab out stuff together and head back out. After a short time of walking we hear an alarm, like from a car or something. That means there must be a road up ahead. We go into a slow running space, saving energy in case we are far away from the camp. The sound has already stopped, but we just keep running straight ahead, slowly going downhill.

"We are the foot of the city, that means it's an hour walking back to camp, at its most."

Daryl doesn't react, instead he just starts walking down the road, away from the city. I just follow him. I can't wait to get back to the camp, but the hunting started nice. Maybe I can sneak away more often to go hunting. Daryl didn't explicit said he didn't like having me around.


	4. Unexpected return

How do you survive – chapter 3: Unexpected return

RICK'S POV (for a change)

I sit in the driver's seat of the van. The people I encountered in the city have offered me to join their camp. I figured I might as well do so. Maybe they can help me look for my family. The boy, Glenn is his name I remember, drives in front of us, we can barely see him making the turn of the highway before he drives out of sight, the sport car being much faster than the van.

We drive up a hill and park behind the red car. Someone obviously managed to turn of the alarm because it's silent here. T-Dog steps out of the car and I hear the back door open. I decide to stay in the van for a while, waiting for them to call me out. They probably have to prepare their people for a new person in their group.

"Hey tank guy, come meet the group." Glenn calls.

I step out of the van and look around. Immediately my eyes start to water and I sink down to my knees. I open my arms just in time to welcome the boy in my arms. I hug him tight before welcoming the woman in my arms too.

"Carl, Lori! I thought I had lost you!" I manage to get out. I'm not a very emotional man, but this is my family, and they are alive!

I hug them for a little while longer before standing up. With Lori's hand in mine a walk forward, towards the man I own a great deal to.

"Good to see you alive and kicking man!"

"Good to be alive, and thank you so much, for taking care of them!" I give my best friend a firm hug before turning back to Lori.

"Lori, where is Cheyenne?"

I see her quickly looking to Shane, and back to me. The look in her eyes hurts me more than being shot.

"I… We don't know. She is nowhere to be found since last night. She sneaked out of the camp with Daryl and they haven't returned yet." Her voice breaks at the end of the sentence, and I see Carl walking towards a white RV that's parked up ahead.

"But, she is alive for as far as you know?" I stutter, tightening my grip on her hand. I need her to keep me up right now. I have my family back, but not completely, and that hurts. The idea that my, not so little anymore, girl is out there alone, between those things. It scares me.

"We don't have any reason to believe not, she is strong Rick, and Daryl is a skilled hunter. He'll protect her."

I think back to the man we left on the roof. T-Dog told me in the car that Daryl and Merle are brothers. If Daryl is anything like his brother, I don't want my daughter in a five mile radius of him. Let alone having her depend on him for surviving. But Lori is right, she is strong. She knows how to shoot and knows how to defend herself. But she also just a girl, raised in a warm and loving home, without violence.

It takes a while before I gather the strength to move. I walk with Lori further into the camp. I introduce myself to everyone. Before Lori shows me where she and Carl have slept the last couple of months. Carl shows me the comics he managed to get before running out the house.

My eyelids are heavy as I sit in the tent with Lori, her head leans against my shoulder, my hand on her back. I allow myself to close my eyes for a few seconds.

CHEYENNE'S POV

It takes me and Daryl a while to finally get to the mountain pass. Up on this mountain lays our camp. There waits me the fury of my mother. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe she went out with Shane again and I get a little more time to prepare my answers. Daryl notices me getting behind, he has looked back at me multiple times now.

"Ya coming or nah, thought ya wanted to get back?" He has stopped walking and I'm so lost in my thoughts that I almost bump in to him.

"Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking, my mom will be furious. Not only will she be angry at me, but also at you."

"I can handle ya mother, she ain't scary."

We keep walking up the hill, my heart is hammering in my throat by the time we can see the vehicles lined up at the beginning of the camp. It's mid-day and very hot. The sun is shining down on us and I feel like I'm sweating a lot.

There are two unknown cars up ahead. A red sports car and a white van. We walk past them into the camp. Dale is on lookout and he starts shouting immediately.

"Guys! They're back!" He starts climbing down and people are rushing to us. Shane and Morales up front, behind them are Carol and Jacqui.

Between the people I see a familiar face. A face I never thought I'd see again. I start running, pushing Shane and Morales out of the way, into his arms.

"How? Mom said, and Shane…" I sob against his shoulder. I can't believe my dad is alive! When Shane came to get us he told us he was dead. That the hospital was overrun and the power was out. He said that my dad couldn't live without the machines and care of staff, that his heart had stopped.

"I don't know, but I'm here now! And so are you!"

I let go of his waist, straightening my posture to face my mother. She looks angry, but there is relief in her eyes as she hugs me to, followed by my little brother.

"Don't ever do that again Cheyenne! We told you to stay in the camp for a reason!"

I explain everything, how we had planned to just go on a little hunt, but got cut off by a horde of walkers, how we had taken shelter at the old barn and how we didn't exactly remember how to get back. About the sound that led us to the highway, and how we found our way back from there. When I'm done Daryl stands behind me, facing my father.

"Where is Merle?"


	5. Fallen

How do you survive - chapter 4: Fallen

"Where is Merle!?" Daryl is screaming now, looking around frantically for his brother. I've never been a big fan of Merle, but his absence doesn't go unnoticed.

It takes a while before someone finally speaks up, and I can't believe my ears when they do. They just left him in the city, tied up on a roof, alone without any way to protect himself. Needless to say that Daryl freaks out. He lunches at my dad but Shane and T-Dog stop him, with trouble.

There is some yelling between Daryl and my dad, but eventually my dad offers to go back tomorrow morning. To get Merle and the weapons bag he had gotten from the station. My dad decides to leave Andrea, Morales and Jacqui home this time, only taking T-Dog, Glenn and Daryl with him.

It's no use trying to go with them, none of them will let me, even though I know I can help. Daryl probably doesn't even want to be around me anymore after the last 24 hours.

][

The next morning they leave before the sun is completely up. My mom explicit told me to stay in the camp while she and the other woman go to the river. I'm on babysitting duty. Carl and Sophia look just as bored as I feel. The day goes by slowly.

Suddenly Ed walks by, his eye is bleeding and he is holding his hand to his nose. I heard yells and all coming from the water side but I thought he and Carol just got into another fight, nothing special. Nobody likes the way he treats her, but nobody does something against it. Maybe someone did this time.

"What happened to you?''

''Our fabulous leader mister dickhead, thinks he can decide how I handle my wife.'' He turns away and walks to the tent he shares with Carol and Sophia.

"Obviously he can." I mutter under my breath, hoping Ed didn't hear me. Maybe sometimes Shane's short temper is kind of useful.

After another ten minutes or so the rest comes back from the riverside. Shane's knuckles are covered in blood. He seemed to have tried washing it of in the cold water, obviously didn't work. Behind him are Andrea and Jacqui, my mom and Carol follow them. Carol separates herself from my mother and walks over to Sophia.

"I should be very mad at you." My mom says when she sits down next to me on a log. "But I'm just way to glad you're back and unharmed."

I decide to just stay silent, let her rant about how irresponsible I am and how I should never leave her sight again and all that bullshit. She does, she rants on and on before storming off, Carl on her heels. Finally some peace. Just for a while though.

"Shane." Jacqui comes down the hill. "Somethings wrong with Jim. He won't stop digging, please help!"

The whole camp is on its feet, Shane in the front. We follow Jacqui and him to the place she just came from. Jim is digging like crazy, aggressively shovelling the hard ground. Shane tries to talk some sense into him, saying he is scaring the group, that he should take some rest and some water.

I want to talk to him, try to convince him with a little more empathy than Shane. Jim is a nice man, and someone I could always have a nice chat with. He doesn't mind me being grumpy most of the time, or my lack in faith in a god or something.

But of course Shane has already pushed him on the ground and is handcuffing his wrists. So much for solving this without violence.

Shane managed to get Jim to calm down, mom and Carol are keeping the kids busy. I decide to just lay in my tent, maybe see if I can sharpen the few arrows I have on something. I'll probably never have the chance to use them when it comes to my mom, but I should have them ready in case of an emergency.

Shane has been leaving me alone these last couple of days. I couldn't help but notice the expression on his face every time he looks at my dad. The way he was looking at my mom when I arrived back into the camp, like he saw her slipping from his dirty little fingers.

][

We've all gathered around a small fire. People seem to have a good time. No one seems to think about the fact that my dad and the others aren't back yet. I ate the food that was left on my plate before I excuse myself. I can't handle all the cheery go around, or Shane bossing people around again.

I've been in my tent for what only seems like a few minutes when I hear screams. Shots to. I grab my bow and get out of my tent. Before I can see what's going on I get thrown to the floor by a walker. In a split second I remember Daryl's lesson, kill the brain! I feel around for something sharp while keeping its head away from me with my other arm.

"Shane, in by the tent! It has Cheyenne!"

Under the arm of the walker I can see my mother and Carl, they are taking cover behind Shane, who is shooting every walker in his sight.

"I can't get a good shot, I'll hit her!" He turns around again, his back to me. I only hear a few mumbles through the screams after that.

I finally get hold on one of my arrows and I stick it into the walkers head. Its weight is making it hard to breath but I manage to get it of me. When I'm fully on my feet again, and I've regained my breath I start shooting. I put down three walkers before I hear more gunshots. Within seconds my dad is next to Shane and the rest scatters around.

I'm almost out of arrows and ways to protect myself. I make my way towards the RV, hoping I can climb up. But my way is cut off by two walkers. I use my last arrow on the walker closest to me, and just push the other out of the way. It gets shot before it can get up again.

"Cheyenne!" I run to my mother, who welcomes me in her arms. The last walkers get shot and silence falls over the group. We've lost a few people, they're scattered around between walkers. I hear Ed is gone, he got attacked by his tent. Amy is gone too, that was the first scream I heard. Poor Andrea.

 _[[[[[ Soooo, this was kind of a filler chapter. I don't remember everything as it happens so I just give a little twist to it all. Please review if you like this, I'd like to know if I'm on the good way. ]]]]]]]_


	6. Moving away

How do you survive – Chapter 5: Moving away

We don't sleep at night, no one is able to. The events from last night just keep playing in my head over and over again. No one can get Andrea away from Amy. We're all scared, she will change soon, start attacking Andrea. My dad offered to take the weight of Andrea, making sure she doesn't have to shoot her own sister. But she won't budge, she even kept him at gunpoint.

We have been cleaning up for hours now, moving the dead to one heap and our own people to another one. Glenn convinced us to bury our own. So we continued digging graves. I've been digging for a while now and my arms start to hurt, but we have two more graves to do.

After everything calmed down a bit I tried to convince my dad to give me a small gun or something, throwing in the argument about running out of arrows and the one on one combat. But he didn't agree, he told me the guns where way to loud anyway, and that a situation like last night wouldn't occur again.

The one on one combat argument was actually pretty close to the truth, I've never been good at it. I've always have had the build of my mother, being slender and short doesn't really help. My dad trained me how to handle a gun, how to fight defensive, not in attack mode. Unfortunately I can't dug my way out a walker attack, that was proved last night.

"Can't I just ride the truck up and down? I have my license." I ask Morales, who is digging a grave next to me.

"You'll have to ask your dad, I'm not in charge about those kind of things, and I don't think he'll like it if I put you behind the wheel."

I shrug my shoulders, there is no chance my dad would let me behind the wheel. There is a reason I ask someone else, he wouldn't even give me the gun. And that was even to keep myself safe.

Jacqui and Jim are moving walkers from the camp to the burning site, they are pretty close to me, hearing distance.

Jacqui: "Are you all right Jim? You look kind of pale."

Jim: "Yeah, just tired, last night was something."

Jacqui: "You sure, maybe you should sit down for a while."

Jim: "No, I'm fine."

Jacqui: "Wait, it's that blood?"

Her sentence and the way her voice goes up at the end of it grab my attention. I stand up straight and look in their direction. She has left the walker where it is and is now pointing at Jim's stomach.

"It isn't mine, I swear!"

But Jacqui has already crossed the three steps between the two of them and is now lifting his shirt. What she sees obviously doesn't please her, as she looks at him with confusion and fear in her eyes. She whispers something I can't understand and he just shakes his head. At this point my curiosity has taken the best of me and I have started walking towards the two.

All of sudden Jacqui turns around and starts yelling. ''HE HAS BEEN BIT! JIM HAS BEEN BIT!"

Everyone starts running towards them, I reach them as one of the first as I was already walking towards them.

People start yelling, fear and anger on the top of everything. There are people having their guns ready. There are discussions about killing him on the spot, not giving him the chance to change.

"You want him to change?! You want to let what happened last night happen again?"

"He won't change within the next few minutes, let's takes some time to talk about this!"

In the corner of my eye I see Daryl storming towards the group, and axe in his hand.

"DARYL NO!" I scream before getting in his way, it's not enough to stop him, he can just push me away with a hit of his shoulder. But it's enough to slow him down, enough so my dad and Shane can push him to the side. Shane has his arm and my dad has his gun to his head.

"That's the second time you pointing that gun at ma head!"

Eventually they just put Jim in the RV while the rest of us continue cleaning up. It takes us all a few hours to clean everything up. My dad has left the digging site around half an hour ago to go talk to Shane and a few others. They have decided that it isn't safe enough to stay here, that we should move somewhere else. But there is a discussion about the destination.

After helping light the last burning heap of walker bodies, I join the discussion. I stand next to Carol and Daryl at the back of the group that surround my dad and Shane.

"If there is any hope left, is there is anything still standing, it has to be the CDC. They will protect that place at all costs. It is our best chance. Jim's only chance, because if there is a cure, it will be at the CDC."

"I think we'll have to go to Fort Bennings, it will be save there, guarded by the strongest of the civilization. But it's 160 miles the other way. 160 miles away from the city, a much safer route."

Around half of the group sides with my dad and his plan to go to the CDC. I haven't seen the city but I saw the highway, and I'm pretty sure I saw it get bombed when we got stuck in the traffic jam. But Fort Bennings has his positive sides too, it's well guarded, hard to reach for those who are not welcome, and it is in a remote area.

After some discussions and even a bit of yelling the group decides it's best to head to the CDC. Just a little while later we leave the camp behind us and turn up the highway, back into the city.


	7. The CDC

How do you survive – chapter 6 : CDC

We drove for hours, I was helping Jacqui taking care of Jim. Trying to keep down his fever, making him as comfortable as possible. His condition went bad fast when we left the camp. He seems to be hallucinating and he grunts at every turn or bump we take.

All of a sudden the RV comes to a stop, flinging me forward since I wasn't holding on and there was nothing in my way to stop me.

"What the heck Dale!?" I grunt as I get up, rubbing my elbows.

"Sorry, we broke down, probably that stupid radiator hose again." He gets up after he honks two times, signalling the rest of the group that we can't go on.

I let Jacqui take further care of Jim and get out of the RV after Dale. Dale pops the trunk when the rest of the groups arrives at the RV.

"We should be able to continue soon, nothing a little duct tape can't fix."

I walk back into the RV to grab the last roll of tape we have. If the hose keeps braking, we won't be able to fix it after this time. I throw Dale the tape before going back to Jim.

"We should be hitting the road soon again, don't worry." My hand dugs into the bucket of water, grabbing a wet towel to wipe away some sweat from his forehead.

"No." His eyes roll back when another wave of pain hits him, and he grabs the sheets with his hands.

"What do you mean no?" Jacqui pushes me to the side softly.

Jim starts explaining, half way I zone out. The essence sticks with me though. He doesn't want to go on anymore, thinks he will change before we can reach the CDC. He doesn't see any hope left, and he doesn't want us to see it for him.

I leave Jacqui and Jim to bicker out their differences, and sit down on a rock at the back of the RV. From this spot I have a nice view over the road we just came from. It's empty, no walkers or animals to be seen.

I start to think back to when the world was normal, living like this almost lets you forget that sometimes. I didn't notice I started to daydream until mom snaps me out of it.

"Cheyenne, are you coming back into the RV? We should be moving soon."

I nod my head, signalling her that I heard her and start moving towards the RV. I see Jacqui and Jim a few yards to the left, sitting by a tree. She turns away crying and Carol walks with her to the RV. I see my dad giving Jim a gun, giving him the opportunity to step out before he turns. I quickly get in the RV grab the small MP3-player laying on the small coffee table and put in the earbuds.

I don't hear the shot when we drive away, but I see Jacqui's reaction. The rest of the ride is silent. I've quickly put away the device, saving the batteries for as far as that's possible. Nobody mentions Jim anymore. Nobody likes to mention the one thing we are all afraid of the most.

We arrive at the CDC at the evening. There are bodies covering the grounds and military vehicles all over the perimeter. We walk towards the doors, luggage in hand, everyone close to another. If one of the bodies suddenly stands up, we are ready to strike.

"I think this place is deserted." I say as I start to move faster, catching up with my dad at the front of the group.

"They wouldn't just give up on this place, someone must be here.'' He stands in front of the closed doors, looking for a way to open them.

"Come on Rick, nobody's here. We got to go, it's getting dark.'' Mom is impatiently waiting a few feet back, Carl hanging on her arm and Shane behind her.

I can hear the growls before I see the monster they belong to. Or little conversation of leaving or not leaving has woken up some of the dead littering the ground. My dad starts screaming at the door, swearing he saw the camera above it move.

"YOU'RE KILLING US HERE, LET US IN!'' He starts banging on the doors.

''Dad, come on, we got to go. It's dangerous here.'' I start pulling his arm as the growls get louder and some people of our group start shooting.

Eventually he gives up, shooting two walkers closest to us before dragging me with him towards the cars. All of a sudden we hear a loud noise and all of us get bathed in bright white light. All of us stand there frozen for a while until the man tells us to get in.

''Once that door closes, it won't open again.'' The man steps aside to let us in.

Everyone is fine with the doors closing, it will mean we are save from the monsters outside and we might even have a warm place to sleep this night, with two eyes closed instead of one.

We follow the man down a few set of stairs. He introduces himself as doctor Jenner. He says he is here alone and that most of the CDC is shut down. I'm walking next to Carol down the long hallway. Jenner shows us where we can sleep and shows us the rooms.

''The showers are down that hall, if you shower go easy on the hot water.'' The man keeps walking as if he just said the most normal thing in the world. But in this world, we are all stunned to hear it.

"Did he say hot water?'' I hear Glenn in front of me ask T-Dog.

"I think he did.''

Needless to say almost every single one of us start to smile. It has been so long since we last had a decent shower. We washed ourselves in the lake but it didn't really make you any cleaner. Granted, it got the stains out of our clothes and from our skin. But there seemed to stay some kind of permanent smell on everything we washed in the lake.

A warm shower, some real shower products, clean sheets and a roof above our head are things some of us have dreamed about since this whole thing started. And now we can finally have it again. Maybe if it's just Jenner that's left, this place may be a great thing.


End file.
